Microsoft hopes to boost Surface sales by expanding retail availability - Page 2

Yes, Microsoft your hip tv spot and übercool grafitti ads did not give the tablet enough physical presence you need to get this product into stores worldwide so more people have the opportunity to not buy it.

 

For that, I would buy one today to play around with....

You missed the "same time last decade" part...

 

Ever go to a CompUSA around 2001?

He means in 1996. When Apple Macs were sold in retail stores like CompUSA, the red-shirted teens staffing the place would try to sell customers a Windows 95 PC instead.

OR it's simply a Zune with better color choices?

 

And that is just like the telecoms right now.

I'm under the impression the MS Surface advertises ClearType as a selling point, which I interpreted as the reason why it can't do portrait. I assume the sheets are cut so that RgB line up for landscape more. To make ClearType for portrait they'd have to figure out a whole new way to creating the sub pixels, which i don't think is worth the effort. I also assumed this is why Mac OS X has sub-pixel rendering but iOS does not.

 

Actually, if you tried using Portrait on Windows 7 tablets, it was pretty awful, even if you subtract ClearType from the picture. There's a task tray icon to let you switch screen rotations (which the driver has to willingly oblige), then the screen goes blank for a second, and the desktop and apps repaint themselves--and the apps have to support rotation. On the particular DELL convertible tablet I was playing with, the touchscreen paint program I was using displayed a warning saying it wasn't optimized for portrait mode, and sure enough, the icons and content simply got squeezed without any finesse or thought for the end user. And Windows fans have the stones to crow about Microsoft being first in the tablet PC market. Well Windows tablet PC was two decades of tablet stagnation.

Microsoft copied Apple Retail Stores as close as they could, even hiring away Apple store managers and trainers. They have every thing in place for success...except products that people want.

 

Admitting they made a mistake and opening up distribution to every garage outfit known to man is weak. Etch-a-Sketch and 8-Ball marketing strategy at its finest.

 

"Quick, shake it again, we need to try something else!" 

 

All this move will do is create a larger pile of SURFACE shit that Microsoft will need to take back all too soon enough. 

Microsoft hopes to boost Surface sales...

 

What a sad thing to say. But I guess it is heartening that they have not given up all hope entirely.

Microsoft can innovate here by inventing the first DoubleSidedTablet™ with different arrangements of sub pixels on each side, portrait and landscape.

Right... Because availabity is the problem...

Psyche!

LOL

The surface is confused. It doesn't know if it's a cheaply built, underperforming laptop or if it is an unwieldy, fat Tablet with poor battery life. Microsoft did what Microsoft always does with anything not related to office. Instead of creating a clearly focused device that has reason to exist on its own, they create a hodgepodge of features no one needs in a particular form factor after both copying a competitors design and ruining that design at the same time. The one great thing about surface has nothing to do with the unit itself. It's the accessory. The smart cover knockoff with built in keyboard.

But the surface won't sell so long as it doesn't know what it wants to be when it grows up. Either make it a lean tablet with lean OS, great battery life, thin hardware, and a reason for being (other than to have something in a particular market genre). OR make it a thin and light laptop with touch screen. As it is now, it seems an under engineered peice of generic hardware running yet another flavor of generic windows (and no, windows rt isn't a good mobile compromise), with no real reason to exist. No true vision behind it. Most people who see this will either purchase a notebook instead. If not, then they are in the market for an iPad.

Something smells Zuneish here.

Microsoft has a problem. The Zune never took off.
Playsforsure was a joke.

Windows 8 is decent once you get used to it. But not great. The metro interface is a refreshing new direction for them. Office is usually pretty great. And the Xbox business is working very well for them.

But anything outside of those departments is an uphill battle. And the surface isn't going to make it. At least not in this incarnation.

I am baffled at the fact that you can not only make a point so clear but, from what I have read, also be correct with so few words. This is exactly what I read and understood - hats off to you sir.

The only way to go is threw the middle ground with the Atom versions, yes I know Atom. However,after owning the Asus Vivo 810c for about two weeks now I can say it's a superb machine, a lot faster then what you would think, in fact when your in the Metro UI the GUI is as responsive as iOS, no bull. Start-up times puts iOS and Android to shame. Plus the added bonus of running pretty much what you want legacy programs wise on the desktop, well except for programs like Photoshop that is. Oh and the battery life when connected to it's keyboard is 18 hours. This little guy is great for my programming apps like Netbeans and of course Office while in desktop mode and the Metro apps while not many to choose from as of right now aren't bad in fact most are pretty damn good. The cloud integration is awesome, so much so that if Apple was to copy anything this should be it.

 

I defiantly see the appeal here and I would recommend the Asus, Lenovo or Samsung Clovertrail models. The Surface, though nice looking is a bust in my opinion, especially when the other guys are doing it better.

 

MSFT isn't a software company anymore than Apple is. They have tried to copied Apple since day 1. Apple comes out with Mac, MSFT answers with Windows 3 (graphical user interface), then XP. Apple comes out with iPod, MSFT answers back with Zune. Apple comes out with their own retail stores, MSFT comes out with their retail stores. Apple makes their App store, MSFT answers back with their App store. Apple comes out with iPhone, MSFT answers back with Windows Phone. Apple comes out with iPad, MSFT answers back with Surface.

 

MSFT thinks they are Apple, but they are not. They think they are premium brand, that's the problem. MSFT makes their own hardware in the Surface and there's a Windows Phone on the horizon that is made by MSFT as well. They've always made pretty decent mice and keyboard, now they just to make their own desktop and voila! Apple!

 

If you look at the way they work in Redmond, the employees only use Windows phone and PC's, they are very anti apple. There is a running joke that employees use Windows devices at work, but at home they use iPhones and iPads. It's really bad mentality because Apple actually makes some pretty damn good products.

 

What many analysts were secretly hoping, was that MSFT would copy Apple shamelessly (like Google did with Android). MSFT didn't, they made the same kind of tablet they've been making for the past 10+ years, which is basically a PC in a tablet form (yes MSFT has been making tablets for over 10 years). They just updated the form factor to make it more palatable for users (touch screen, camera, app store, etc).

 

The fact of the matter is, MSFT doesn't have any of their own ideas. Every new business they've ventured into, with exception of XBox has been in response to what Apple has done. Windows 8 was MSFT's first attempt to not copy Apple shamelessly and it's not being met with great fanfare. In my opinion the way Win8 has been implemented, MSFT hasn't done anything to improve the user experience, they've just made it different which in the words of Jony Ive is very easy to do.

Edited by White Lotus - 1/6/13 at 5:59pm

The retail strategy MSFT is implementing is an old fashioned strategy called "Push". What they are hoping is to push the products in front of customers, in hopes they will buy it. If you read about Apple's strategy, it's called "Pull". Apple believes in selling a product that people want and try to satisfy that want. Distributors like Target offer to buy iPads from Apple because their customers are asking for it. This is distribution "pull". MSFT still doesn't get it. You can't successfully push products onto consumers, it doesn't make for a great business model. You have to make a great product that people want.